Here’s a great interview with Jim Simons on the Into The Impossible Podcast in which he discusses life lessons and leadership lessons, including his thoughts on decision making which is particularly relevant to investing. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Q1 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Q: You once told me that you read a fiction book called The Captain or something like that that was very influential on you as a leader. Can you remind me the name of that book because I have not been able to find it yet?
Simons: I can’t remember the name of it either. It was when I was about to become Chair of Stony Brook math department. I was 30 years old and I found this book. I think it might have been called Captain, about a young fellow in the Navy who became captain of a boat at quite a young age and had to learn how to be a commander.
One of the things he learned is don’t dawdle too much about making a decision. Make a decision. It may be wrong but it’s better to make a decision than just dawdle and dawdle and make no decision.
That seemed like an important lesson to me and I’ve always been reasonably decisive. I consult with other people and so on, as one should, but I don’t you know just go back and forth and back and forth for a long time. I make the decision. Sometimes it’s wrong, but most of the time my decisions have been good.
You can watch the entire interview here:
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Article by The Acquirer’s Multiple
